A new face
by Kitt21
Summary: Transformers Animated. Optimus Prime and his crew defeat Megatron and his Decepticons. The Allspark is safe. But a new Transformer comes to Earth. Is this new face a new friend or an old memory? OC
1. A New Friend

****

Me and my sister wrote this story together. It is our first fanfic so please be nice. We do NOT own the transformers or the series, but we do own one character. 10 points and a cookie to those who can guess who. -50 for those who can't and no cookie for you. and for those of you who can't, we pity you fools.

A new face:

What seems like a bit of space debris floats by Earth. It is on a crash course with the tiny blue planet, ensnared by it's overwhelming gravity. In a spectacular spray of rock and metal it lands. A figure steps out, the newest Cybertronian on Earth transformed and drove away to scan a different form from this new planet.

Thousands of miles away, in the city of Detroit. Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl, and Bulkhead awoke from their recharges to an alarm. A rather loud alarm. The startled bots ran to their very large computer screen, they were alarmed to find that there was a new metal on the planet. Its composition was nothing found on earth or even in this solar system. There was only one place that you could find it. Cybertron. When the bots saw this they were excited, their ship was damaged and in need of extensive repairs.

Optimus Prime looked towards his men after scanning the information from Teletran 1. "Bumblebee, I need you and Prowl to go to this small island nation and retrieve as much Cybertronian metal as you can and bring it back here." Prowl and Bumblebee looked at each other, not looking forward to this mission. "But..." Bumblebee started to protest but was cut off by Ratchet "Just do as your told kid, The faster you get there the faster you get back and be done with this mission" he said rather irritated. Bumblebee just shut his mouth, He didn't like it when he's interrupted mid complaint but he knew Ratchet was right, He also didn't want to get hit upside his head for mouthing back at the grouchy medic.... Again.

It took five days (involving a road trip and a boat ride half way round the world in much too small crates, tons of patience, and a LOT of whining on Bumblebee's part), but at last the two irritated bots reached their destination. At the crash site they discovered what they scanned. "That's all it was" yelled a very pissed off Bumblebee "A stupid Star Jumper!?" "It appears so" said prowl in his monotoned voice. As they approached the tiny ship, they heard a large explosion from the engines and out of the dust cloud came a large figure. When the dust settled the two bots saw it was another mech like them. He was completely black all over, the two autobots weren't able to tell if that was his normal colors or because of the explosion. He looked just half a head taller than Bumblebee and had what appeared to be a space helmet on so his features were hidden. And when the mech saw the onlookers he stopped. Prowl stepped forward cautiously trying to see if this new mech was a friend or another decepticon, offering his hand in friendship so he wouldn't scare him away if he was friendly "Hello, My name is..." but the newcomer didn't let him finish, he bolted away from them faster then Bumblebee when he is threatened with educational TV. "Well that's gratitude for you!" commented the little yellow mech, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Unable to complete their mission they called Optimus to let him know that they were on their way home.

Another LONG trip and they were telling every one about what they saw. "So, you say you saw another Autobot?" Asked Optimus, "Not exactly, We weren't able to tell if he was friendly or not." Prowl began, "Yah! He ran off before we could find anything about him." Bumblebee finished for him. "Sounds like someone is hiding something" a very interested Sari stated. Optimus considered her words for a minute. From what Prowl and Bumblebee said, he knew he needed to get over there soon. "Alright, I've decided that we still need to get to that ship." He stated to other autobots. "Wonderful." a very glum Bumblebee mumbled "When do we leave."

"I think it would be best if only one of us goes." said Optimus, answering the youngest autobots question. All the others wore slightly confused expressions. "And by us I mean me."

A week later, in Japan, Optimus was driving through the country side enjoying the scenery and lost in his thoughts. He hadn't stopped thinking of the strange mech and hoping the mech was who he thought it was. He was so engrossed in his own little world that he failed to notice a little yellow car and black motorcycle following him. "Where do you think he's going?" the yellow car asked. "Do you really need to ask?" The motorcycle retorted back in a monotoned voice. Bumblebee fumed, he did know were they were heading but it was in his nature to ask questions. "I still don't see why we still need to follow bigbot, especially since we're already in Japan. Its not like he could send us back to the base." Bumblebee stated not liking the sound of silence. Prowl seemed to stiffen, if that was even possible since the ninja bot was always stiff. "I'm not sure about you but I don't want to be on the receiving end of one of his speeches." Prowl answered remembering how Optimus when the crew were unruly and disobedient. "My audios still aren't the same." Bumblebee shuddered at the thought of it. Even though he wasn't the one being lectured at he still was afraid of Optimus when he got that look in his optics meaning an incoming talking to.

At the crash site, the fire truck had stopped a few feet from the space ship. Transforming to his bot mode he called out "hello? I know your there." Optimus stepped into the ship. At the edge of the near by thicket of trees, the new mech hid behind a large tree observing the strange bot. He seemed so familiar to the mech but the memory danced just out of reach, he still had a few scrambled circuits from the crash but they were repairing themselves fairly quick. Optimus stepped back out of the ship into the middle of the field. He scanned the area trying to find an energy signature. He turned to the area were the mech was hiding. Then the mech saw it. He did indeed know this bot in front of him. In a burst of happiness he was about to rush forward and reveal himself to Optimus but suddenly stopped. He saw two vehicles approaching.

Optimus turned around to see Bumblebee and Prowl coming toward him. He sighed heavily and waited for them to reach him and transform. Both little bots looked at each other then at there leader who looked like he was about to rip them both new tail pipes. "Optimus, Sir, we thought you would need backup." they both chimed knowing that was the most pathetic excuse that they could give and that Optimus knew it. He looked at them both and sighed one more time. "We'll discuses this later when we return to base. Both little bots looked slightly relieved but still nervous about talking to Optimus about their disobedience later.

The three of them scattered around the ship trying to scan for the mech again. During all this, the mech was arguing with himself . He wanted to go over to Optimus but was afraid of those other two. But Optimus seemed to know them, But then again, he vowed never to be too trusting. Finally, he was about to simply throw himself out there, when suddenly, everything exploded. Everybody looked up to see a strange purple and red jet bot hovering overhead. Starscream was firing on the Autobots below as they took cover inside the ship and returned fire. Even though it was three against one Starscream was a trained warrior and the Autobots were simple repair bots. Optimus did have some combat training from the Autobot Academy but it still didn't compare to Starscream's skills. Starscream fired at the ships engines setting them on fire trying to force the Autobots out into the open.

Optimus, seeing that the engines had caught on fire grabbed both of his soldiers and half dragged half carried them out before the rest of the ship caught on fire or worse. Before Bee or Prowl knew it they were both out side watching the ship be engulfed in flames, Starscream taking aim at them and firing. Optimus pushed both bots to the ground and used he ax to deflect the laser shot. There was no more cover close for them to get to and the forest was just to far to run to without fear of Starscream shooting at them, so Optimus tried his best to shield his men, but he knew it wouldn't be long before Starscream got in a lucky shot and took him out. After a few more blasts Optimus was on one knee taking in a lot of air to cool his overheated circuitry. Both Prowl and Bee were behind him firing at the Decepticon but were failing miserably. Starscream smirked knowing that one more blast would destroy the young Autobot leader. As he fired everything seemed to go in slow motion, the Autobots saw the laser coming and knew they needed to get away but before any of them could move there was a black streak and the strange mech threw himself in front of the Autobots and took the full force of the blast and was sent flying a few feet back from them, laying on the ground not moving.

****

To be continued.....

More to come.


	2. Out of Danger

**Sorry, forgot to mention that this story takes place in the Transformers Animated world. This fight is around the time after the Autobots established their base. Do NOT own transformers. Wish we did. But alas we shall prevail.**

Optimus stood dumbstruck. Time just seemed to stand still around them, even Starscream stopped his attack on the 'bots to gape at what happened. Optimus, not even noticing that the laser fire had stopped, got up and ran over to check on the mech. Bumblebee and Prowl went over and stood close to their friend and new ally to give some cover if Starscream started his onslaught again. Said 'con saw what was happening and decided that now was a good time to high tail it. (And when we say high tail we do mean HIGH TAIL).

"So long Autoscum," he yelled down to them "I'll be seeing you later." Bumblebee and Prowl both looked up then to each other with confused looks on their faceplates. "You just leavin' like that?" 'Bee yelled back "No blasting our skid plates off?"

"Don't give him any ideas." Prowl hissed.

"Heh heh heh You should know the Decepticon's golden rule, Autobots," Starscream said while slowly backing away "Those who fight and run away,"

"Live to run away again" 'Bee quickly finished for him with a smirk. Prowl didn't know whether to smirk along with him or slap him upside his head. He decided to do neither.

Starscream would of retaliated but when he looked over and saw that prime was recovering from his shock, he didn't want to press his luck even more than he had already. He knew that Primes, even young ones such as him, had a tendency of flying off the handle when their friends were attacked. He remembered that it was this single Autobot that defeated him in their last altercation, and he didn't want to pound out more dents from his armor. Primus he still had some left from his last encounter with the young autobot. With one last devilish smirk he took off leaving behind two very confused mechs and two very oblivious ones. Optimus glanced up once to make sure Starscream was really gone, then scooped up the damaged mech and made his way to the ship, Prowl and 'Bee quickly following.

It was then that the two saw that the ship was still in one piece. It looked like a total slag heap, but still one piece none the less. Prowl, on closer inspection, saw that the ship had automated fire extinguishers installed in the walls and ceiling. Which was unusual since only larger ships such as theirs had automated fire extinguishers and smaller ships like this Star Jumper were provided with hand used extinguishers much like what the humans used. 'Bee on the other hand was trying to snoop in every single crevice he could get into without straying more than 5 feet from Prowl or Prime (Which, considering their sizes isn't that far). A soft moan brought them back to the present and they followed the sound to the back of the ship.

The ship itself wasn't that large, only About half the size of their own but it had a few descent sized areas. A cockpit, a small kitchen with an energon dispenser, a room with a recharge berth and desk, a storage closet, and next to that at the very back a tiny medical room. It had a few basic machinery for medical care and one berth, it was just bad enough that both bots could already hear Ratchet's tirade if he saw this little pitiful room of a Med. Bay. Optimus had already placed their mysterious friend on the lone berth and said mysterious friend was coming back online.

Slowly the mech sat up rubbing his head and swaying slightly, obviously disoriented. You didn't need to be a medi-bot to see the poor thing was a little loopy. Now that all the excitement was over everyone got a good look at their new friend. Optimus had taken off his helmet and placed it on a med tray near the berth. He had a very basic helm design, smooth, nothing adorning it except the single grey chevron on his forehead and round audios, and he wore a visor and mask so it was impossible to see his features. Looking further down his body he had a boxy sort of look, like what some of the older mechs who fought in the great wars and appeared in old history vids had. But it was hard to tell the mech's age. He didn't move like an old bot but without seeing his face or hearing his voice it was a tough call.

The mech even had basic colors, gunmetal grey and black (Most likely scorch marks from Starscream's weapon), like he never even bothered to get a paintjob in his entire function cycle. And what made this mech even more odd, was the fact he didn't sport the Autobot insignia. Optics roamed all over the body but no red Autobot symbol anywhere, in fact the wounds that were supposed to of riddled the mechs body were absent as well. This mech was getting more and more mysterious by the minute. But the straw that broke the proverbial camels back was what the mech did when he got his senses all together. Shaking his head to clear the last bit of static the mech looked around surprised to be in his tiny Med. Bay when he suddenly spotted Optimus. After two clicks to process this and another to remember how his body worked, he launched himself at Prime, wrapped his arms around as much of Optimus as he could reach and kept repeating his name over and over again. "Somethin' tells me this guy knows the boss bot." 'Bee whispered, ever stating the obvious.

And this day kept on giving more surprises. Optimus wrapped his arms around the mech, who was talking 50 words a minute, trying to give some solace. "I can't believe that I found you in a backwoods star system like this! I mean I knew you were alive and that I would find you but not here." His voice was a little gravely and sounded distorted, probably from the mask or the attack, but it was still hard to gage the mechs age. "But I'm glad your alright, I was afraid when that 'con came and you started to fight him." Then realization set in. "I CAN'T BEILEVE YOU FOUGHT A BLASTIN 'CON!" and without warning or provocation the mech jumped on top of the berth and knocked Optimus upside his head with his fist, leaving no dent but a nice resounding clang was heard. All Optimus did was rub his head and smile at this crazy mech.

"Ahem." all eyes turned to Prowl who decided it was time to clear up some things about their strange new friend, but again the mech surprised them. He made a small sound in the back of his vocalizer that sounded suspiciously like an "eep" and lunged himself at Optimus again but kept his head bowed and made no further noises. Prowl raised on optic ridge while Bumblebee gaped, how could someone be all happy and relieved to being angry to afraid in the span of 2 minutes an not get whiplash. Optimus looked at the mech in his arms to his crew members and sighed, "Could you give us a minute?" Looking at his crew's face plates he knew they wanted to argue. At least 'Bee looked like he was ready to argue, Prowl had a neutral look so it was impossible to tell with him. He was glad when Prowl reached out and grabbed Bumblebee's arm and half pulled half dragged a protesting 'Bee out of the tiny Med. Bay, around a corner and out of sight.

Prime gave a small sigh, glad to avoid an argument for once. He returned his attention to the mech that was latched onto him and smiled. "It's ok, they're gone, you can let go now." The mech released Optimus and looked up at him, even though Prime couldn't see it, he knew his friend was smiling at him from behind the mask. He returned the hidden smile, "Why don't you take off all that armor? I bet you'd be a bit more comfortable." The mech looked at the entrance of the bay warily. "You don't have to worry, they won't see you and they won't judge. Besides it's going to be a bit tough hiding it from the others." Optimus responded to what he knew his friend was feeling. And with a nod the mech relented and waved for Optimus to leave, "I need a little privacy thank you very much."

Optimus nodded and left the Med. Bay to find his men. After a quick scan around he found both of them snooping in the storage closet. "What are you two doing?" he asked them. "oh slag!" 'Bee exclaimed. Opening the door the bigger bot reached in and brought out both smaller bots, holding each by their scruff bars. Bee was wiggling and struggling with Optimus' arm trying to get him off. Prowl on the other hand (No pun intended) looked like he wanted to disappear into thin air. He was extremely embarrassed, I mean he was a Cyber Ninja for Primus' sake, he should of found a better hiding place or at least tell if Prime was sneaking up on him. Raising both bots to his optic level Optimus waited for their excuse. "We weren't doing anything!" Bee yelped still trying to dislodge Optimus' grip on him. Prime raised an optic ridge at that giving both a 'you got to be kidding me look'. "Well it's the truth, technically we weren't doing anything." Bee grumbled, giving up on getting out of Prime's grip and wilting in defeat.

Seeing that Bee calmed down and that both bots wouldn't bolt on him, Optimus gently placed both down on their stabilizing servos, crossed his arms across his chest and waited for another explanation. The two younger bots exchanged a look with each other, knowing they were in trouble. Looking back at their leader opened their mouths to explain when they were interrupted by another voice, "Ok I'm done. How do I look?" They all turned to the entrance of the Med. Bay and the two younger bots were floored by what they saw, Optimus was as calm as could be. There standing behind Optimus wasn't a mech like they assumed but a femme. A very pretty femme at that. "You look nice." Optimus responded to the unexpected question. He turned back to his teammates and saw the looks of confusion on their face plates directed his way. Knowing that lecturing them about hiding in the storage closet wouldn't get resolved before answering their questions he turned and gestured for the femme to come over. She looked a little apprehensive about it but walked slowly over to Optimus and almost instantly latched on to his side.

Optimus put an arm around her shoulders and turned his gaze back to Prowl and Bumblebee, "Prowl, Bee, I'd like to introduce the both of you to System, a courier bot and one of my closest friends."

**To be continued…..**

**More to come.**

**Sorry about taking so long in updating but I'm not the most motivated of authors but I promise to try harder, but the plot bunnies in my head haven't been let out for a while so I cant see how this story will be in the future. Sorry again.**


	3. Problem found, Problem solved

**Sorry about not updating on time and all, but I'm still new to the whole writing thing. English was never my best subject, XD, I can barely speak American! So yah….. Just be patient with me that's all I ask. I don't own the Transformers though it would be sooooo cool if I did and I'd be super rich too.**

"Whaaaaa?" both the stunned bots stated at the same time. Bee had his mouth plates hanging open with wide blue optics. Prowl, for his credit kept his own surprise at a minimum with his own mouth plates slightly open and with his visor it was near impossible to know if his optics were just as wide as Bee's.

In their shock both of them were taking in the femmes appearance, she wasn't overly curvy like half the femmes on Cybertron but she also wasn't plain. She wore very little armor on her body, only around her chest and pelvic areas and armor type boots. She also wore what appeared like gauntlets on her hands that ended at her elbow joints.

Her features were proportionate and her face was kind looking, she had a glass plate on the upper part of her face like a visor but it didn't look like it attached to anything and it didn't hid her optics from view. It appeared to have no function other than looking stylish. Her helm was just like the one on her mech disguise, very simple with round audios and grey chevron. She was the same size as Bumblebee, her mech disguise probably had something to allow her a few inches in height to make her appear taller.

Her colors were completely different however, she was a soft metallic pink with silver joints. All in all she was quit an attractive little thing. Optimus and the recently revealed System waited for the cascade of questions that would ensue the initial outburst. And waited…..and waited……and waited. System looked from the strange bots to Optimus than back to the bots,

"I think you broke them."

Apparently that sentence contained the magic words that unfreezes a bots locked up processor, cause no sooner were those words uttered than the aforementioned question cascade started up, mostly from Bumblebee. The sudden explosion of questions scared System so much she jumped a few feet off the ground and then hid behind Optimus. Prime looked behind his back then towards his crewmembers. Giving a shake of his head and raising his arms in a placating gesture he stopped the interrogation.

"You need to calm down you two. The two of us will answer all of your questions, I have a few of my own," At this he turned his head back to look at System "But as I said before you need to be calm, System scares fairly easily." He continues looking back at them.

At this the two both nodded their heads in acceptance and stood quietly for System to come back out. Optimus nodded himself, glad to see his men understood. He sidestepped to reveal System again and went over to stand by his crewmates to keep them in check with their questioning and to keep out of System's reach so she wouldn't try to use him as a shield and of course to ask his own questions. But before the answering of questions could begin Optimus wanted to introduce his crew to the femme,

"System, I would like to introduce you to two of my men. This is Bumblebee," gesturing to the little yellow bot "and Prowl." pointing to the dark ninja-bot. Both bots' nodded their heads when their designations were stated and gave her friendly looks. Once that was out of the way Bumblebee was naturally the first one to pose his question,

"What the slag are you doing all the way out here?"

"BUMBLEBEE!" Optimus didn't like cursing (not even when Ratchet did it, but who could tell Ratchet not to curse? Well someone who WASN'T crazy or had a death wish that is.) and especially didn't want it around System. He was supposed to protect and set a good example for her and that would be hard to do if his own men cussed! What kind of leader would that make him seem?

"What?" Bumblebee shrugged as if he didn't do anything wrong.

Optimus just shook his head, they were definitely going to have a talk when they got back to the base. System smiled.

"I actually came to find you guys." She had a very smooth and soft voice with only a slight trace of an electronic tone. "When all of you, you and the rest of your crew, disappeared the elite guard and the council were taking too long to organize a search team for my liking so I left on my own search effort." She had her own friendly smile on her face, starting to feel comfortable around the new bots' with Optimus nearby.

"How exactly did you get here?" Optimus was next. System pointed around the ship they were still in. "You know what I mean System, where did this ship come from? It can't be yours." System gave a shy smile and avoided optic contact.

"Well….um…..uh…I kind of….uh…borrowed it……without any intention of returning it." she stammered out. Prime cocked an optic ridge with an 'oh really' look on his face plates.

"And who did you 'borrow' this ship from?" Now System was starting to fidget.

"……father." she squeaked out.

Optimus slapped a hand to his forehead with a resounding clang and groaned. He had forgotten how extreme System could get when she wanted to get something done, but does she really have to cause so much trouble. Primus. It seemed Prowl and Bumblebee wouldn't be the only ones involved in the lecture later on, he was going to need to go see Ratchet and get his processors de-fragged when this mission was all done with.

"You came for _all_ of us?" it was Prowl's turn to ask a question, getting back on track.

"Well mostly for Optimus but I knew he had a crew with him, so I wanted to help even if none of you survives. I just had to bring back your bodies back to Cybertron for internment." Prowl nodded excepting the answer. "How did you know to look for us in this sector of space?"

"I didn't, I went to your last known location and found no clues, so I had to go on rumors from pirates, bounty hunters, and other couriers only to get a vague idea of where you were. When I was on the outer reaches of this solar system I planned to just jet through with a faint sweep with a few sensors. I reached the asteroid best close to the red planet I passed when my engines cut out and I was forced to drift for a few solar cycles before I crashed here."

"Why'd you dress like a mech?" And it's back to Bee.

"It's not safe for a single femme out in the universe, I find that if I look like a nonviolent mech and not a tasty energon goody I tend to get left alone a lot." That made quit a bit of sense, looking at her. She may not be miss universe but if someone was perverse enough they'd jump her in a nano-klick.

"Well now that you found us how do you figure you'd get us back to Cybertron? Surly not on this ship, it obviously can not fit our entire crew in it." Prowl decided to ask figuring this femme didn't account for everything. System gave him a 'what do you mean' look before answering,

"Of course I knew this ship would be inadequate for getting back home, I thought we could take your ship. It can't be that badly damaged, unless you collided with a mountain or crashed into the ocean."

At their guilty faces _she_ slapped her own forehead this time. "Who was piloting at the time?" The question was strange but both smaller bots turned towards Prime indicating their answers and Optimus raised his hand slightly to indicate it was indeed him doing the flying.

System looked confused at this, looking at each mech in turn before resting her gaze back at Optimus. "That can't be right. Optimus you were the best pilot at the Academy, how could you crash your ship?"

"It's a little hard to fly a ship and fight for your life against Megatron at the same time." Optimus replied with an irritated look. Yes he was a fairly good pilot and he wouldn't normally crash his ship unless something terrible was happening, System should know that. System gasped at his statement, she had her hands over her mouth and her optics were wide. She didn't know that Optimus had taken on the _Decepticon Lord_.

"You can't be serious! Optimus I know your good at fighting and taking on that one con' from earlier is one thing but the Decepticon Warlord?! That's just insane, I'm sorry but I just can't believe something like that happening without you getting yourself killed and as you are standing in front of me right now you can excuse me for thinking that."

Optimus smiled a bit at her reaction, yes it was very hard to think that him, Optimus Prime, Autobot Academy dropout, had went one on one with Megatron, Decepticon Lord, and survived. He and System had known each other for a very long time (yes a long time even for cybertronians) and he couldn't blame her for doubting that he did fight the nastiest mech in the universe. He opened his mouth to explain a little but as always Bumblebee spoke up first not even thinking what he was going to say,

"You'd better believe he fought Megatron and he also fought that earlier con' Starscream before too, but he didn't actually surv-" Bee didn't get to finish what he was going to say since Optimus had him in a headlock with a hand over his oversized mouth plates.

System did _not_ need to hear that story, he'd never hear the end of it. He looked up at System with Bee struggling in his arms and smiled, "I think we asked enough questions for right now, lets figure out what we will do with the ship and get back to base," he released Bumblebee and threw him a look that said plain and simple 'do _not_ finish that story', and miraculously enough Bee caught on and kept his mouth shut, before continuing, "System, it would be best if you joined us at our base."

System thought about that for a moment. On one side there would be more strange bots' she wouldn't know and even though she would never say it aloud, but she was scared of mechs (except for a select few including Optimus that is) and had a deep seeded mistrust of many of them, especially after the incident…NO she can't think of that right now. Giving her head a mental shake she considered the other side of her option, she would be with Optimus.

At that thought she mentally kicked herself, Optimus would protect her from any thing that would hurt her, he always had and always will. Besides, he would of personally decided on who would be on this crew, and if not she knew he wouldn't have any bot who was the least bit deceitful or untrustworthy, so what was she so worried about. But then again….no, she has got to stop thinking so negatively, Primus she had hung around Scattershot to much.

"Of course I'll come with you Optimus, there's not anywhere else I can go now is there?" she said with a nod of her head and a sly smile playing on her face. Prime just smiled at that,

"I know, but I had to offer it. You hate to be ordered around even by me, I knew if I told you that you had to come you'd of thrown it back at my faceplate and stormed out and you know it."

"Hahaha you know me to well for your own good Optimus." System laughed back. The two ignored bots' looked at each other in confusion, neither had seen Prime interact with anybody like this. He was always trying to look stoic and dignified, keeping everybot at arms length, to be laughing with this strange femme was indeed contradicting his 'image' so to speak.

There was only one thing they could think of that would make their leader act like this and it could be described in one word, and it was running through both of their CPUs: Bondmates. They were both slightly disappointed at this, the femme was very cute and they both had slightly hoped to get together with her, oh well.

Outside of the ship the mechs waited for System to come out with whatever she may need before they discarded the ship and headed back to their base. There wasn't enough materials to repair their own ship with, the metals integrity was compromised during its entry to the planets atmosphere and wouldn't hold their ship together for interstellar travel.

System had done some exploring around the valley and knew of a lake near by that was deep enough to hide the ship until they could leave the planet and retrieve it. It wouldn't do for a human to discover it and mess with any technology that could prove harmful.

Optimus had noticed that Bee and Prowl were awfully quiet, well Prowl was always quiet but he seemed more so then usual, but Bee was never quiet. They were both standing close together and looking anywhere but at the ship or him. This was very weird behavior from both of them but when he was about to question them about it, System came out sub-spacing a tiny machine.

"What's that?" Bumblebee asked. Well at least he wasn't being completely silent, it's just weird to have a quiet Bumblebee.

"Hm? Oh that was just an energon converter." System replied not really paying attention to the others, she was making sure she had everything in her sub-space pockets.

"Really? But its so small. The one we have back at our base is at least half my height and that thing fit in both your hands just fine." Bumblebee continued, gesturing about how big their own energon converter was and how big hers was.

"Later Bumblebee," Optimus intervened "Right now we need to take care of this ship and then head back to base." Everyone nodded then transformed to vehicle mode except for System, who was hooking cables to her ship then hooking them up to the others. When that was taken care of she hooked up a few cables to her back.

"Hehehe what are you going to do? Drag the ship like that? I think you'd better let us do that, you don't want to get hurt or in our way." Bumblebee chuckled, thinking the femme to be too delicate for such a job as towing the ship the several hundred feet to the lake, and by the look of her she didn't have a strong vehicle mode if she even had one that is. She had no wheels on her, she was just a very basic protoform.

At Bee's comment System went rigid and turned a glare at him. She was afraid and mistrustful of mechs, and she knew she didn't look very strong or capable, but she knew her strength and what she could accomplish, she also hated it when others belittled her. At seeing the look on the femme's face Bee abruptly shut up.

Optimus just chuckled silently to himself, knowing System didn't need him to stand up for her, he knew he was supposed to care for her bur she hated it when she felt like he was 'babying' her as the humans say. Prowl wasn't surprised by this at all, he had heard of how femmes would act sweet and innocent one moment then turn around and be stubborn and hard-headed the next. He wasn't one to actively seek information about femmes, he was just too slagging proud for his own good. System released Bee from her glare and returned her attention to tying the rest of the cables onto her before saying,

"Just because I don't have wings doesn't mean I can't fly." and with that she transformed. The transformation sequence was so swift it was hard, even for the Autobots, to see how she transformed.

When she was finished, a shiny pink hovercraft floated where a femme once stood and even though they were in vehicle mode System could feel she was being 'checked out' by the two smaller mechs, and it was making her feel a bit uncomfortable. Sensing her distress, Optimus decided it was time to move.

"All right, Autobots lets roll out."

At the lake System transformed back to robot mode and started to undo the cables on her and the others. She quickly undid Optimus and Prowl's cables, but as she came up to Bee she just stood with her arms crossed over her chest with a fragged off look on her faceplates. Bumblebee was very worried now, he didn't know what femmes could do when they where this fragged off but he could imagine that it wasn't good for his health. System leaned over him and said venomously,

"Now apologized for what you said and I'll untie you. Don't, and I'll keep you attached to my ship when we push it into the water. Your choice." She said the last part with a scary smile. Bee shook a little bit before saying in a tiny voice,

"I'm sorry." System nodded her head in acceptance and released him from the cables. It was hard work to push the ship into the lake, but with the moist dirt to help slide it along, they were able to accomplish their task before the sun had set. System collapsed from the amount of energy she used while the mechs looked slightly tired but still on their stabilizing servos.

"Ok, now that that's done can we go home now?" Bee whined. System rolled her optics, Primus this one would be fun.

"Affirmative Bumblebee," Optimus said "Lets transform and roll for home. System, you don't have an earth vehicle form yet do you?" She shook her head. "Couldn't find one I liked or was very functional."

"Well then I guess you should hitch a ride inside me." He opened his cab's door to let her in, she was small enough to fit in with a little room to spare and she was too tired to protest about being carted around. After she slipped inside Optimus and was laying in a somewhat comfortable position, all three car bots headed out of the valley, back to the boat that would take them all home.

**To be continued…..**


End file.
